stathis

Recently California has embarked on a campaign to reduce the oil change frequency and reduce environmental impacts from disposal.
This website:
http://www.checkyournumber.org/#
suggests that for the RDX 7,500 M is the appropriate oil change frequency. My car is always due at around 5,000M or 3 times per year. I always felt 5,000M was excessive especially for synthetic. Now my opinion is vindicated. My driving is half city/highway with some traffic.
The frequent oil changes recommended by Acura seem to be based on revenue generation.
What has been your experience with RDX oil change? Especially the DIYs in this forume?

dcmodels

I checked three totally different vehicles that I personally own: 2000 Chevy S10 Blazer 4x4, 2001 Chevy Camaro Z28, and 2009 RDX. All three were also 7,500 miles so I am assuming that the site just suggests 7,500 for ALL vehicles. How useful.

WHY? My 2009 RDX reports due between 2,500 and 7,500 depending upon how it is driven, i.e., short trips in cold/ hot or highway (vacation) trips. I surely trust the Honda engineers much more than some web site in Calif.

Your opinion is based upon what? what you wish to be true?

Why would you think this? The recommendation is more likely meant to make certain the car survives the warranty period of 4 years, which is much less time than I would wish to keep the vehicle. For that reason I change the engine oil every 3 months or 2K miles, and no, I do not really care what others think about my 'wasting' oil. I plan to keep the RDX for 200K miles. How 'wasteful' is it to replace the RDX with a worn-out engine, after only 100K miles and save a few quarts of oil?

And if this were really the case (revenue generation by Acura), why would not every other car manuf do the same? With the use of the oil change reporting software on current vehicles, you will actually find that every manuf and every model now reports a different oil change interval, again, based additionally upon the conditions under which the vehicle is driven.

If you are asking how long other people go between oil changes, there are already several topics on this subject (on this site). Yes, there are other RDX owners who also think the usual recommend oil change intervals are too short (and who have complained on this site).

If you are thinking that the oil interval for your RDX is short, you should have seen the (short) interval reported for my 2001 Z28 when my commute was 3 miles (one way), especially in the winter when it was -10 degrees.

Just remember the RDX is not a 4-cylinder Civic, its a TURBO, with a specific horsepower output per Liter greater than was once possible with race engines.
---eof

dcmodels

I take it back - the site suggests 15K mile oil change intervals for a 2010 series 7 BMW. I have read that under some conditions, the BMW MID (maintenance indicator display) can also report this oil change interval. I am not certain that I would follow that interval for myself (if I could afford to buy a BMW).

dcmodels

Well, I should have checked further on the web site that you referenced, before making my previous post. Here is what the site actually says:

"However, you can trust your vehicle’s maintenance system in your dashboard to tell you more accurately [than the referenced web site] when you need a [oil] change."

And also: "If you do drive in any one of these conditions in a typical week, you are driving in severe conditions,..."

"Extensive idling OR in stop-and-go traffic
Cold weather, less than 10 degrees
Extreme heat, more than 90 degrees
Extreme humidity
Repeated short-distance trips of less than five miles
Towing a trailer or hauling heavy materials"

Seems to me that if you are driving 50% city, then you are driving in the first SEVERE condition, in the list above, from the web site that you have referenced.

My RDX is driven under ALL of the severe conditions, except for the TOWING, all of the time, except for vacations (highway travel). Hence, I use oil change intervals even shorter than the RDX MID recommends.